"Tennis elbow," in its strictest meaning, is the common term used to describe lateral epicondylitis. This is a tendonitis of the extensor carpi radialis brevis, which attaches to the lateral epicondyl of the humeris. It may be caused by a sudden injury or by repetitive use of the arm. It may involve micro tears in the tendons that lead to a hyper-vascular condition resulting in pain. The pain is usually worse with strong gripping with the elbow in an extended position, as in a tennis back-hand stroke, but this problem can occur in golf and other sports as well as with repetitive use of tools.
It has been reported that nearly half of all recreational players age 30 or older have suffered from tennis elbow symptoms, which may arise from tennis backhands and serves. Incidence of the malady has increased with the introduction of new tennis technologies, especially longer racquets and tighter stringing. Tennis elbow can arise not only from sports and working with tools, but also from simply picking up an object with the arm extended.
Lateral epicondylitis refers to inflammation of the tendons that attach the extensor muscles of the forearm to the outer portion of the bony prominence of the elbow, which is the lateral epicondyle. The resulting pain tends to be felt in the outer portions of the elbow and forearm. Tennis elbow pain coming from the inner portion of the elbow may be designated as medial epicondylitis wherein tendons of the extensor muscles that are attached to the medial epicondyle are inflamed.
The term "tennis elbow" is often applied to any pain in the elbow or forearm.
All sorts of treatments of tennis elbow have been suggested. These range from internal and external medications, heat, cold, ultrasound, to surgery. Many kinds of devices have been sold or described, including braces, magnets, slings, stretching devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,200 to Unger discloses a hand and finger exercise device for treating ailments such as "tennis wrist" and "tennis elbow." A cylinder the diameter of a tennis racquet handle is grasped in the hand of the user. Three elasticized straps run longitudinally along the cylinder. One fits over the fingers adjacent to the knuckles, another over the fingers adjacent to the finger tips, and a third over the thumb. The user squeezes the cylinder, then flexes fingers and thumb outwardly against the straps. The straps constrain the fingers and thumb so that they can only uncurl in unison and cannot move laterally away from each other.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,244 to Waller and Tobin provides a bidirectional exercise glove in which rods embedded along the fingers of the glove, or thick molded regions formed integrally with the glove, resist flexion and extension of the fingers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,290 to Aboud teaches an elastic variable tension device for relieving pain due to a variety of ailments, including tennis elbow. The device comprises a stack of multiple elastic strips, and hook and loop fasteners for securing the device with tension around a part of the body suffering pain.
An article in the New York Times of Jan. 13, 1998, page F9, describes exercises to help arthritic hands. One, with an illustration, states in its entirety: "Put a rubber band around the hand. Using the thumb as an anchor, try to separate the fingers. If this doesn't make your fingers tired after a few repetitions, use a stronger rubber band."